34 search results for “Kali Hawlk”

You need to market your business to continue growing. But you need to grow and generate more revenue before you invest in marketing.

Sound familiar? You may feel trapped in this catch-22 and for good reason: traditional marketing avenues are expensive. And it’s hard to pour any amount of profit into something where return on investment is notoriously hard to track and understand.

Thankfully, there is an escape. You can explore marketing channels that don’t require a huge budget — or any marketing budget at all. New ways of promoting your products and sharing your business with new audiences make it easy to market for cheap or even free.

Get started by using these strategies that incorporate everything from one-on-one connections to massive reach on social media and more.

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Adam Grant’s book, Originals, is a great read for any budding entrepreneur — especially if you feel like you’re not a “real” business owner unless you quit your job, sell all your stuff, and put every last resource you have into building your shop.

“In a fascinating study, management researchers Joseph Raffiee and Jie Feng asked a simple question: When people start a business, are the better off keeping or quitting their day jobs?” Grant writes.

Many of us assume successful entrepreneurs are successful because they took big risks. We assume going all-in and leaping from your job to focus on your retail business idea full-time is the only way to make it work.

But the study Grant shares tells a different story. “Entrepreneurs who kept their day jobs had 33% lower odds of failure than those who quit,” he says.

So, is it better to continue toiling at your 9-5 while building a side retail business? While neither way is “wrong” per se, we’re here to make a case for playing the long game — grow slowly to ensure stability. And here’s why.

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Customer relations and service depend heavily on what retailers communicate to the people who buy their products. And ways, methods, and channels of communication have radically changed in recent years.

As a result, the relationship between a business and its customers doesn’t look the same today as it did even 10 years ago. That means the way you deliver your customer service shouldn’t look the same today as it did in the past, either.

Serving your customers in unique, fresh ways can boost brand loyalty and encourage new, inquisitive customers to experience what you offer for themselves. It can become part of your differentiator, setting you apart from your competitors.

In the digital age, good customer service can even go viral, spreading your message far beyond your normal audience. Taking good care of consumers can even double as effective marketing for your retail store, whether you use it in a campaign or it turns into excellent PR fodder for media to run with.

Not sure how to get started? Take some customer service tips from these seven retailers who embrace new ways to do business — and serve the people who help their companies make profits.

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Whatever you thought of Snapchat when it first debuted, you can’t deny that little white ghost icon is just about everywhere today. The app proved that it was more than just a social network for kids and teenagers to send silly messages to each other that quickly disappeared.

Photos, videos, and text shared on Snapchat maintains a short shelf life, so it’s understandable why that could add to your list of reasons why you haven’t gotten on board with this social app yet. Why go to the trouble of creating great content when you’re limited to 10 seconds of airtime per snap — which is just gone after 24 hours?

While the features of Snapchat remain the same, its user base has changed dramatically since it launched. It also provides unique, fun, and highly engaging ways to share content — and therefore, your products and your brand — with potential customers.

If you wrote off the app before, it might be time to take another look at Snapchat and how to use it as a retail business. We talked to a handful of experts who offered their tips and takeaways on using this platform to its maximum potential.

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Wouldn’t it be nice to have new customers come to you, instead of going out to hunt for them? Or to have them find you without going through the lengthy, expensive process of running advertisements?

It’s not only a nice idea, but one that you can make a reality for your business when you use content marketing.

Retailers can create content to publish and distribute on websites, blogs, emails, social media, and other platforms in order to expand their reach and raise brand awareness. Content like blog posts can also attract new customers who are searching for solutions that your products can provide.

But consistently creating unique content comes with its challenges — generating a wealth of topics being at the top of the list. But it’s possible to keep a constant stream of fresh ideas flowing, and we’ve got a few ways to jumpstart your creativity.

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Many retailers put a lot of their time, focus, and resources into finding ways to generate more sales.

After all, more sales means more revenues. And more revenues provide more opportunity for future business growth.

But what about the actual process for making those sales? What about the transaction itself?

While it’s important to drive new customers to purchase products (and keep existing customers loyal and coming back again and again), retailers can’t neglect the systems and processes that physically allow for sales to happen.

This is where the right POS, or point-of-sale, comes into play. The best POS systems allow you to not only actually conduct sales transactions, but also handle a number of other activities around that sale from inventory management to returns and exchanges to tracking customer behavior.

With so many solutions available to retailers, finding the best and the right POS for your business can feel challenging. And that’s why we put together this step-by-step guide that will take you through the entire process, from research to testing to decision-making.

Ready to get started? First, you need to follow a bit of timeless advice: know thyself. (Or, in this case, your business and how you sell).

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What if you didn’t need to pay to market your business? What if your ideal customers came straight to you — and in fact, were eager and excited to hear from you?

Traditional marketing strategies require you to go out and find your customers first. Then you need to interrupt what they were doing in some way.

If they read a magazine, for example, that interruption comes in the form of a page dedicated to advertising your product (that you paid to promote).

Finally, you need to hope that your interruption is memorable enough that a potential shopper will recall it at some point in the future when they’re ready to make a purchase.

This is outbound marketing, and it’s characterized by retailers proactively getting in front of customers. That isn’t all bad. But it’s not always effective, since it depends on demanding attention — and it’s usually expensive.

Thankfully, there’s an alternative: inbound marketing. Instead of demanding attention of your ideal customers, inbound marketing earns that attention from market segments that you actually want to sell to.

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As hard as you try, you can’t please everyone. From mistakes your company makes to shoppers who are just downright unpleasant or rude, finding a way to handle angry customers is a reality you must face as a retailer.

But it doesn’t need to be complicated — and in fact, you can view dealing with angry customers as an opportunity to put these great customer service tips into practice to make a lasting impact on your business and your customers.

Each time a customer offers their feedback, good or bad, is an opportunity. This is a chance to not only resolve a problem, but to transform someone’s mindset about your brand from negative to positive through your way of handling their concerns.

The next time you come across a shopper who’s less than pleased, keep these strategies in mind to diffuse the situation and turn the interaction into a great customer relations.

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There’s not much more I love in this world than a great taco. And I love looking for and trying new, authentic Mexican and Latin restaurants.

But recently something happened to disrupt my experience of a restaurant I hadn’t been to before — despite my eagerness to try new places and consume more tacos.

I enjoyed my food. I liked the atmosphere. But the entire time, I was wondering if I made a bad choice in selecting this restaurant. I was paranoid that I was missing something — or that other diners knew something I didn’t.

Why? Because it was 6 p.m. on a Friday night in downtown Boston and hardly anyone was in this restaurant.

This was downright weird. Most places are packed, and I expected an after-work crowd at the bar at the very least. The restaurant was massive but only a handful of diners occupied tables.

This is the power of something called social proof. Had the restaurant been packed full of patrons, I likely would have felt like the food was even better than it really was and had an inflated opinion of the restaurant.

Despite the fact that I liked my food, the restaurant, and the overall experience, I was anxious the entire time because there was no social proof to make me feel better about my choice in dining there.

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In a world full of blogs to read, social media accounts to follow, and YouTubers to watch, it can feel impossible for a retail entrepreneur to cut through the noise and reach their ideal customer.

Despite the content overload that’s weighing down the Internet, there’s still one line of access that puts you (and your business) front and center on screens around the world and directly in front of your shoppers’ eyeballs.

The thing is, it’s not always easy to get this direct line of access — which makes it all the more valuable.

We’re talking, of course, about your target customers’ email addresses.

Through email, you can show up for your target market instead of hoping they’ll come and find you. It’s a direct way to remind your prospects you exist, nudge existing customers to make another purchase, or provide additional value through exclusive content, coupons, and deals.

Email is also a fantastic medium for building connections and relationships. It’s a one-on-one conversation that can make consumers feel seen, heard, and appreciated. And that can lead to loyal customers who don’t just buy from you, but advocate for you.

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